


H.O.P.E (Hold on Pain Ends)

by TheFoxofFiction



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Angry lions, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Black Paladin Keith, Electrocution, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, I'm Sorry Keith, Lotor can go to hell, M/M, Mind Link, Near Death Experiences, Not Beta Read, Torture, after season 2, black paladin lance, don't hurt their cubs, forced Galra genes. such as Ears and Tail, found Shiro, just ignore it i had to get it out of my mind, moma Red, pissed of Red, she will kill you slowly if you hurt her son
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-27 02:22:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9945965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFoxofFiction/pseuds/TheFoxofFiction
Summary: Captured by the Galra Keith is tortured to tell Prince Lotor where the lions are. and With Haggar playing around with his genes forcing him to look more Galra than before he's starting to loose hope as she uses his connection with Red as a way to find the castle.The pain was gone just as fast as it came.Keith panted harshly for air body sagging as a weak growl rose from his chest. He pushed his head back to rest against the structure he was shackled too as he forced one eye open to glare at the other Half-breed before him: Lotor smirked and moved away from the controls over to Keith. Keith bared his teeth and growled a bit louder, only making Lotor smirk more before he grabbed Keith’s jaw hard enough to bruise.“Now, tell me where the lions are, they weren’t where you said they were.” Keith spat Lotor in the face, the prince stiffened before stroking his hand over his face to get the spit away.“I’d rather die than tell you.” Keith grunted out, he fought back a flinch when Lotor’s cold yellow eyes bore into him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This idea... came all because of Thace in season 2... so Keith is shackled to the same thingy as Thace was... have no idea what to call it...
> 
> I apologize but I just love to make my faviourite characters hurt, as long as I can drown them in fluff afterwards.

H.O.P.E

( _Hold on Pain Ends_ )

 

Keith heard the door to the room swish open, but he was too tired to open his eyes. He was hungry, they only gave him enough food and water to keep him alive, not give him strength. He had barley slept, kept awake by the fear of waking up in blinding pain or the nightmares that lurked in his mind, he fainted several times, so many that he stopped counting.  
He heard someone chuckle and it made the hair on his body stand on end, and his newly formed Galra ears to fold back while his long tail curled around his left numb leg.

  “Time to wake up Paladin~” a voice said just before pain exploded thru his body, Keith choked on his own scream as his body stiffened before trying to curl together as his muscles pulled taunt against the restraints.

The pain was gone just as fast as it came.

Keith panted harshly for air body sagging as a weak growl rose from his chest. He pushed his head back to rest against the structure he was shackled too as he forced one eye open to glare at the other Half-breed before him: Lotor smirked and moved away from the controls over to Keith. Keith bared his teeth and growled a bit louder, only making Lotor smirk more before he grabbed Keith’s jaw hard enough to bruise.

  “Now, tell me where the lions are, they weren’t where you said they were.” Keith spat Lotor in the face, the prince stiffened before stroking his hand over his face to get the spit away.

  “I’d rather die than tell you.” Keith grunted out, he fought back a flinch when Lotor’s cold yellow eyes bore into him.

  “I can have Haggar have another go with you; she really likes to play around with you, Paladin. You are even more interesting than your puny champion.” Keith growled when Lotor mentioned Shiro. “Where. Are. The. Lions.” Keith bared his teeth again only getting a bored expression in return. “Well then.” Lotor let go of Keith’s face and moved back towards the controls Keith felt dread grow and he steeled himself for the pain. “Tell me where the lions are.” Lotor demanded again, fingers on the controls. Keith forced his eyes shut, moving his tongue as far back in his mouth as he could to not bite it.

  “Fuck you!” Keith forced out between clenched teeth.

The pain flared up and Keith screamed this time. His vision blurred out to white as his fists clenched and toes curled the fur on his tail stood up on end. The pain only grew worse.

  “Prince Lotor, do not kill the prisoner.” A new voice said, only that made freezing fear grow in him, the power was reduced of the electricity, but didn’t stop completely, Keith panted as he pushed his head back against the cool metal.

How had he gotten into this situation? Oh yeah, he remembered now, despite the pain.

 

*****

 

Shiro was gone. Keith sighed there he sat in Black’s seat, he felt her discomfort just as much as his own, along with Red’s annoyance there she was back on the castle. But he was only gonna pilot Black until they got Shiro back, only till then, Black had accepted that, but she didn’t help him like Red did when they flew or fought, she did her inputs but was other than that very, very silent.

Keith had pushed his feelings down deep in the cellar and locked the door to be able to be the leader Shiro wanted him to be, even if he knew he wasn’t the best choice, Lance was not silent about it, they had had the biggest argument yet when Keith told them, Hunk had had to lift Lance of the ground to hold the blue furious paladin back. None of them had been happy about it, Keith didn’t blame them, but they followed. Keith listened the best he could too what they said and tried his hardest to stay calm, and keep his feelings down; they didn’t have time for him to break down now.

It had been a tense couple of weeks with nothing, not even a distress beacon to get them to think of something, ANYTHING else. Keith had told everyone to get some rest, sounding so much like Shiro in his own ears that it had hurt; some grumbled affirmatives was heard as Hunk and Pidge left the bridge. Coran took his initiative and managed to get Allura to get some rest, and in the end, Keith was the only one awake.

He tapped away on the screen mindlessly trying to find anything on where Shiro could have disappeared to, but when the screen grew blurry before his eyes, let Keith his hand fall forward to hang over his legs as he hunched forward on the chair, tears dropping down to pool at the floor, a choked sob left him as he grabbed his hair and let himself shatter all alone on the bridge.

Hulking sob after sob wracked thru his body. Keith barely noticed the hands on his back until he was pulled against someone’s chest and murmured nothings were spoken to him in a soft voice. He opened his eyes a bit only to drown in blue.

_Lance_

Keith choked on his own breath as another sob shook thru him and he grabbed a hold of the blue robe, the fabric was soft in his fists, and he faintly worried about ripping it, but it went away just as fast as it came.

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry-” Lance sober out over and over as he hugged Keith close. Keith clung to him for dear life. “Keith- oh god, I’m so sorry-”

Keith sobbed a bit louder when he felt big warm arms hug around him from behind, there was only one Keith knew who was that warm.

_Hunk_

  “Let it all out, buddy, we’re here...” Hunk murmured as he pulled both Lance and Keith closer to him. Keith buried his face into Hunk’s shoulder as he stopped trying to hold the sobs and tears back, letting himself fall apart.

 

Keith sniffled, tears long since run dry, he sat up slowly grimacing slightly as he caught sight of the damp slightly snotty spot on Hunk’s pyjamas shirt.

  “Sorry.” Keith croaked out. Hunk looked down at him and Keith felt how Lance hugged him a bit tighter.

  “Don’t worry about it.” Hunk said and smiled before he gave Keith a worried look “How are you feeling?” Keith shrugged he was too tired to talk, worn out and his head hurt slightly, Lance seemed to suddenly be able to read his mind because he moved his hands and started to brush his long fingers thru Keith’s hair.

  “You said we were to go to sleep, and yet here you are, still awake.” Lance scolded. “When was the last time you sleep?”

  “I’ve slept!” Keith grumbled.

  “Okay, when was the last time you slept more than an hour?” Keith opened his mouth to answer but closed it again. He couldn’t remember. “Thought so, Hunk let’s move this sad excuse of a boyfriend and leader to the bedroom.” Hunk chuckled as he lifted both of them and left the bridge. Keith had fallen asleep warm and secure in the middle between Lance and Hunk.  
That had been weeks ago...

 

The castle alarms blared loudly as Allura’s voice called them to get to the bridge. She told them that they had found Shiro’s location. They were before an uninhabited planet full of tunnels.

  “According to the scans Shiro is supposed to be in the tunnels, but be careful the structure is weak and unbalanced, any shift in the bearing can cause a cave in.” Coran said showing the visual of the planet, it looked like Swiss cheese.

  “So... like back at the Balmera?” Hunk asked as he looked at the planet.

  “No, much worse I’m afraid, this planet is very fragile, one cave in will cause a domino effect causing the entire planet to cave in.”

  “So what do we do? Shiro’s down there.” Keith said “If we can’t land the lions, how do we get there?”

  “Can we teleport him onboard?” Lance asked with a smile. “That way no one gets hurt.”

  “I'm sorry, but the castle doesn’t have any kind of ‘teleport’ as you so kindly called it.” Coran said with a frown, causing Lance’s smile to fall.

  “What if instead of taking four lions we only take two, Hunk and I in Green and Keith and Lance in Black?” Pidge piped up. They argued slightly about if it wasn’t better to take Red since she was smaller and lighter than Black. In the end it became like Pidge said.  
  
It had been a trap by the Galra.  
Keith ran the fastest he could; Lance was before him, now and again turning around to shoot at the sentries that chased after them. Keith deflected as many laser blasts as he could, hissing out in pain when one struck him in the side, making him stumble and get further behind Lance. Keith looked around, they wouldn’t be able to get back to Black like this, and the tunnel was making stones rain down over them from how weak the structure was. Keith saw a big rock slightly loose in the roof further ahead, he changed grip of his Bayard before he threw it, it struck the rock hard and caused the rocks to cave-in in a matter of seconds Keith heard how Lance screamed his name in panic and fear.

_“KEITH!”_

  “GO!” Keith shouted back taking his Bayard back and turning to face the sentries. “Get to Black and find Shiro.”

 _“Are you out of you mind! I’m not leaving you behind!”_ Lance shouted and Keith head how he was digging thru the stones, the sentries stopped keeping him at gun point.

  “Lance, you have to.” Keith said.

 _“NO!”_ Lance shouted, voice cracking _“I can’t pilot Black! You’re the black paladin! KEITH, COME ON!”_

  “I’m not! Go! Find Shiro! _Then_ come and get me, Please, Lance... go.”

 _“You fucking bastard.”_ he heard Lance sob. _“We’ll come back for you, I promise!”_ Lance said and Keith felt a smile take over his face as he readied his stance.

  “Find Shiro for me.”

 _“You better not die, Kogane! I will get you back from hell to kill you myself.”_ Lance growled

Keith moved his hand to the com.

  “It’s been an honour flying with you.” Keith muted the com before he heard Lance’s reply.

 

Keith roared as he threw himself at the sentries, he was not gonna go down without a fight. He had downed half of them when they knocked him out.

 

And that was how he found himself with his life in Prince Lotor’s hands.

 

*****

 

Lance jolted when the loud rumble behind him causing him to slid to a halt spinning around only to gape in fear as he saw how the cave had fallen in cutting him off from Keith who was on the other side with the sentries, if he wasn’t under the rocks.

  “KEITH!” Lance shouted throwing himself at the rocks and started to try and dig

 _“GO!”_ Keith shouted back, oh thank god he was still alive. _“Get to Black and find Shiro.”_

What?!

NO!

Lance stared at the wall between them.

  “Are you out of you mind! I’m not leaving you behind!” Lance shouted digging with more strength than before, he was not gonna leave Keith behind like this!

 _“Lance, you have to.”_ Keith replied with a calmness that only made Lance dig more.

“NO!” Lance shouted, voice cracking “I can’t pilot Black! You’re the black paladin! KEITH, COME ON!” Lance shouted slamming his hands against the rock.

 _“I’m not! Go! Find Shiro!_ Then _come and get me, Please, Lance... go.”_ Lance glared at the wall that grew blurry as his eyes filled with angry tears.

  “You fucking bastard.” Lance sobbed. “We’ll come back for you, I promise!” Lance said backing away from the stone wall, tears was streaming down his dusty cheeks

_“Find Shiro for me.”_

  “You better not die, Kogane! I will get you back from hell to kill you myself.” Lance growled glaring hard on the wall as he turned around and ran towards Black.

 _“It’s been an honour flying with you.”_ Lance froze in his steps spinning around to stare at the tunnel he just exited, Black stood hunched before him, particle barrier up.

  “KEITH!” Lance shouted again, no reply “No, no, no, no! You don’t get to do this! _KEITH!_ ” silence was all he got back.

 _“Lance we lost contact with Keith, what happened?”_ Allura’s voice asked in the com

  “He- Keith-” Lance took a shaky breath before he forced his eyes together clenching his fists “The Galra took him... he made the tunnel cave-in to save me. He’s... He’s gone...” Lance looked up at Black.

 _“Then we have to get him back!”_ Pidge shouted in the com. Lance grimaced.

  “No, Keith promptly told me to get Shiro. And I promised him that I would, he’s strong; Keith can handle it.” Lance said in a voice that even surprised himself with how clear and leader like it sounded

 _“How are you gonna get out if Keith’s taken, he was the one who flew Black_...” Hunk asked in worry. _“We’re on our way, we’ll pick you up... how we get Black is another question...”_

Lance sighed as he opened his eyes again to look at Black.

  “I’ll figure something out, if Keith thought I could fly her... than I might as well try, right?”

 _“Okay, call us if you need us to pick you up.”_ Pidge replied, Lance nodded and turned his attention to Black.

  “Uh... hey Black... guess you will have to change paladin, again... since Keith was an _idiot and let himself get caught_.” Lance growled out the end, but despite his anger, his worry was overflowing almost drowning. _Please be okay..._ he thought sending a glance back to the tunnel.

Loud rumbles made him turn back to find how Black moved, lowering her head and opening her mouth to him as the barrier around her vanished, Lance gaped before a smile fell over his face as Black’s presence flooded his mind, weaker than Blue but still there.

 _We’ll get them back._ Black rumbled with a defiant tone.

Lance sniffled and nodded as he walked up the ramp.

  “I’m in, I’m returning to the castle.” Lance said as he took a hold of the handles, Black was bigger than Blue.

He reached the castle and the moment he stepped down from Black’s ramp everyone demanded to know what happened. Lance told them as he fought back the tears all over again, Hunk moved over to him and hugged him tight.

They searched for a long time until they found any clues about where Shiro could be, and this time they were ready for a trap. They didn’t want to lose anyone else.

 

But what they found instead on the planet was Shiro sitting in front of a fire place hair longer than before and with a beard, the paladin armour lied dirty at the door of a small cottage built by sticks and mud. Lance, Pidge and Hunk all choked on their own breaths, Shiro jolted at the noise and turned to face them, he looked tired and worn, and in need of a bath but the moment he saw them his face lit up like a sun.

  “SHIRO!” Pidge cried out and threw herself at him, hugging him close as she cried, Shiro hugged her back as he looked up at Lance and Hunk; he searched around them with his eyes for a moment before he looked to Lance who wore the black paladin armour.

  “Where’s Keith?” Shiro asked in a croaked voice, ha hadn’t used it in a while. Lance grimaced and looked away.

  “It’s my fault.” Lance murmured.

  “Lance, we talked about this, it wasn’t your fault!” Hunk said in a sombre voice.

  “What happened?” Shiro asked voice stronger now. Lance sighed heavily still not looking at Shiro.

  “Tha Galra took him, we were on a planet full of tunnels, we thought you were there, so we checked it out. It was a trap; Keith let himself get caught to save me and Black... he told us to get you before getting him back.” Lance’s shoulders slump as he dares to look at Shiro. “That was about a month ago...” Shiro presses his lips together.

  “Then we got no time to lose.” he says and puts out the fire before taking on the armour again before turning to face them. “Lead the way.”

Black had been overjoyed when she had meet Shiro again, even if Lance were the one who flew them all back to the castle.

 

A day in the healing pod, catching up on sleep and food, showering and shaving and Shiro walked out dressed in clean clothes stretching his arms over his head as he entered the bridge.

  “So what do we know?” he asked looking at the three remaining paladins, Allura and Coran.

  “I’ve been trying to find the ships coordinates for a while, and found them when you were in the pod; the ship is here.” Pidge said there she sat in her chair a big hologram opened up showing another big fleet and hub. “From what I’ve found, is this place owned by Zarkon’s son... Prince Lotor.” Allura stiffened and her face grew hard as her grip of the pillars made her fists pale.

  “Princess, what do you know?” Shiro asked giving her a look. Allura turned round to face them.

  “Lotor is not a full-blooded Galra.” She said “His mother was Altean; she was my father’s cousin.” Coran sighed as he moved over to Allura.

  “Will Keith be alright?” Hunk asked just as Red’s roar was heard, shaking thru the castle, followed by Blue and Yellow then Hunk choked on his own breath while Lance stumbled and crashed into his chair gasping for breath, red exploded before their eyes and pain flared thru their bodies.

_Found you now_

It was gone just as fast as it come and Lance felt himself fall lax and sink to the ground he barely heard the thud as Hunk’s legs gave out under him.

The loud voices of the others reached their ears and Lance groaned opening his eyes to meet Hunk’s wild look.

  “What’s wrong? Lance Hunk, what’s going on?” Allura suddenly demanded. “Why is Red running wild in her hangar?”

  “Keith-” Lance panted out moving his hand to his head. “I- we felt him...” Lance hugged around his arms as he rose on shaky legs stumbling over to Hunk. “We got too hurry.”

  “What happened?”

  “I- I don’t know, everything turned red, and everything hurt-” Lance said as he sank down before Hunk.

  “I could hear him scream... it felt almost like Yellow but not- someone said they found us.”

  “Zarkon used the Black lion to track us.” Shiro said. “Do you think they could do the same to Keith?”

  “It’s possible, that would explain Red, she is very protective of her paladin, but it doesn’t explain why Lance, Hunk Yellow and Blue got affected.”

  “Maybe it’s because they’re, you know, boyfriends?”

  “Possible... but we got to hurry.” Allura gave Lance and Hunk another glance, they had huddled close barely moving there they were, Red was still pacing in her hangar, they could hear her, but also see thru the security system that Blue and Yellow had moved over to her to try and comfort her.

  “We need a plan.” Shiro said, stepping back into his role as leader. “We will need to find Keith and get him back to safety, our mission is not to fight the hub like the time we rescued Allura.” All of them nodded.

 

*****

 

  “Why do you bother me in my fun, old hag?” Lotor asked in annoyance as he looked at the intruder; Haggar looked back at him with an unimpressed face.

  “Killing the Paladin will do you no good.” She replied “Turn it off; I have some more questions for our guest.” Keith took a shuddering breath the moment the electricity stopped. Keith glared at Haggar as she moved closer, a growl leaving his as his tail bristled and his ears folded back. “Hm, looks like the changes work fine, I might actually make you look like a full-blooded Galra.” She smirked a toothy grin making cold sweats break out over Keith’s body. “But that was not the reason as to why I am here.” She grabbed his head, and Keith stiffened trying to trash to get away from her grip.

No.

No, _no, no, no!_

Keith felt fear flare up in him; he fought against her hands more, pushing against the cuffs that secured him to the structure.

  “Don’t-” he choked out staring at her with wide terrified eyes ears flat against his head.

  “Why? It’s the perfect method to find the Paladins, I used it all the time with Lord Zarkon to find the Black lion, thought he was a willing representative, I’m sure you won’t mind if I use your link with the Red lion once again.” she smirked and Keith flinched and fought a bit more before explosions of pain flared up behind his eyes.

Keith heard himself scream but it was far away and grew distant as he was lunged out from his own body and his mind felt like it was torn apart.

Keith saw stars and planets fly him by until the castle became visible before him, he felt Red Roar out in surprise then pure anger when she felt his pain, but that wasn’t all, Red wasn’t the only lion who roared at Haggar in anger, Keith could feet Blue and Yellow too, and, was that- Lance and Hunk?

  “Found you now” Haggar chuckled

Keith snapped back to himself with a choked noise as Haggar laughed removing his hands, Keith felt nauseous, everything was too bright and the world still spun before him.

He could still feel fragments of Red in his mind, panicked and angry at his pain he tried to reach for them, but the moment he caught them, they withered away, leaving a big black void in his mind where Red’s connection to him usually was stationed.

His grasp of consciousness thinned and he slumped in the binds, ears hanging limp at his head while his tail almost reached the floor. His chest heaved as he panted; he was shivering and sweating hands shaking.

  “Pathetic.” Lotor snarked unamused, “And you’re supposed to have galra blood in your veins.” Lotor grabbed once again Keith’s jaw making the red paladin only send him a weak glare. “Why do you still fight? You got nothing to win from this useless fight, Voltron will perish and fall to fathers hands, a puny dirtling like you and the rest of the paladins will never win.”

  “Go die.” Keith wheezed out, Lotor glared at him before he sneered.

  “Oh I’m not gonna die, but you on the other hand paladin, are.” Lotor grabbed Keith around the throat squeezing hard, Keith choked.

  “My prince, we need the paladin alive.” Haggar growled from behind him, Lotor huffed and let go, of Keith who coughed for air.

The door swished open.

  “Sire, the Altean castle is heading our way, what are your orders?” a guard asked. Lotor clicked his tongue in annoyance. As he sent a look to Keith and smirked

  “Just you wait, paladin, you’re friends will have come here in vain.” Lotor left the room followed by Haggar. The moment the door closed Keith sagged in the binds tears filling his eyes against his will, he let his eyes fall shut too tired to keep fighting the consciousness anymore.

 

 

He jolted awake when the ship shook and alarms blared ahead. His body was still and numb, he perked his ears a bit, feeling them sting with pain. Another quake shook thru the ship and Keith wasn’t sure if he imagined it or not, but he felt Red, her roaring fire burning bright but also a bright yellow sun and a clear blue ocean appeared before his eyes when he closed them, and he reached out for them before he had time to even think about it.

 _I’m here, I’m here._ He called out in his mind

 _CUB!_ He heard Red roar back followed by a wave of worry and anger at what she found, red flaring around her voice.

 _Keith? Don’t worry buddy, we’re coming._ Blue colours followed the voice

 _Hang in there, we’re there soon._ Yellow glowed around the other.

 

 

The loud hiss of the door jolted Keith back to himself, and he saw a pissed looking Lotor looking back at him.

  “Looks like your friends came faster than expected, who is flying the red lion!” he shouted grabbing a hold of Keith’s throat again. “The lions cannot move that well without a pilot!” Keith sneered at him.

  “You don’t know red good enough; she will kill you if she gets the chance-” Keith choked of as Lotor squeezed harder.

  “You’re friends are coming for you, sadly they will be too late.” Lotor spat out and tore his hand from Keith’s throat before he moved over to the controls and pushed all the power to the highest point. Keith screamed out in pain everything went white around him as his throat grew raw, his fingers clenched painfully hard and he barley felt the blood that started to run down his palms from where his now sharper nails had broken the skin. He didn’t feel the blood that ran from his nose either.

Keith didn’t hear when the door closed after Lotor left.

Pain

_Only pain._

 

*****

 

Red was wrecking havoc outside in pure anger; no one hurt her cub without her giving the hurt back tenfold as Lance and Hunk ran across the corridor of the galra ship that they knew from the scanners Keith was in. They stopped at a crossroads unsure which corridor to take when the pain filled scream reached their ears, causing both of them to flinch and share a look before they rushed in the direction of the scream, there was only one they knew who could make that noise.

Keith.

Lance tried to reach out like he and Hunk had trained on during the silent before the storm time, but he flinched back when pain was all that came across the link.

  “We got to hurry.” Lance said and began to run faster, Hunk hurried along, they stopped before a door and Lance shot a sentry apart before using the hand to open the door.

Lance paled at the sight and rushed inside over to what he thought was the controls. He starred at it with frantic eyes.

  “Fuck it!” he shouted as he took out his gun and shot the controls dead, the electricity stopped with a loud snap and the shackles let go, making Keith fall limp, he could have crashed to the floor if Hunk hadn’t caught him.

  “Keith, come on buddy, wake up.” Hunk murmured slowly placing Keith on the floor, he ears hung limp and his body was lax, Hunk first now noticed that he wasn’t breathing, Hunk moved his hand to Keith’s bruised throat to try and find a pulse, an erratic uneven beating answered his fingers for two tics before it flat lined. “Keith!” Hunk shouted in fear moving his hands to start and try to get his heart to start again.

 _“Hunk Lance what’s your status?”_ Shiro asked thru the com

  “We- we found Keith, but he’s not breathing and his heart just stopped, Hunk is trying to start it again.” Lance replied “They also made him look more galra...”

 _“You might want to hurry, they are preparing to wormhole away.”_ Lance and Hunk shared a look.

  “I got a pulse! Let’s go!” Hunk shouted as he picked up a limp Keith in his arms and both of them ran as fast as they could back to their lions.

Red sent a blast of fire at the ships as Yellow and Blue passed her, just as the Galra ships wormholed away, she roared before she rushed after them.

 

 

Hunk left Yellow with Keith in his arms, Allura gasped and Shiro’s face hardened.

  “Coran. Pod. Now.” Hunk ordered speed walking towards the pod room, Lance hot on his heels. Everyone else followed. Keith was put in the pod and is sealed making the shadows under his eyes and hollow cheeks stand out more.

A heavy silence fell over the room.

  “How... is he Coran?” Lance asked in the end sending the orange haired Altean a worried look. Coran pulled out the chart, frown growing deeper as he kept reading.

  “No good, I’m afraid.” He sighed “I can’t get a certain time to when he will come out.”

 

Tense days followed as the pod healed what it could.  
Allura had found an empty part in space to stay in to wait.

It had been four days when Keith suddenly gave away a groan from inside the pod, face consorting in a grimace his breath fogged before him as his ears folded back and the tail twitched.

  “Keith?” Lance called out as he rose from the nest of blankets they had spent their time waiting in. A breathy noise left Keith and Hunk rose from his spot too.

  “Come on, buddy.” Hunk said.

He and Lance shared a look before they closed their eyes and reached out with their minds, they saw the red fire flare weakly before them. It flinched when it first felt them before it grew steadier and let them envelop it.

The hiss from the pod made Hunk and Lance open their eyes again to find how Keith slowly blinked his eyes open. He sighed as he fell into Hunk’s waiting arms.

Keith groaned as he sluggishly moved his arms to grabbed hold of Hunk’s to steady himself.

  “...Hunk?” Keith croaked out in question, his voice was hoarse and rough.

  “Yeah, I’m here buddy.” Hunk said before he hugged Keith close. “It’s good to have you back.” Keith groaned before he blinked his eyes open fully.

  “We almost lost you man.” Lance said making Keith turn to face him, Lance looked at him with watery eyes face a mask of relief.

  “We **did** loose you.” Hunk cut in “But I managed to get your heartbeat back.” Keith nodded slowly before his eyes widened and his ears stood on end.

  “Shiro?” he asked looking between the two. Lance smiled.

  “Found him.” Lance said gesturing into the room “He was camping out in the wilderness, I bet it was relaxing.”

  “It was not.” Shiro replied with a scowl.

  “But tell you what; you do not suit wearing a beard.” Pidge chirped up.

  “I did not have a choice; there were no knives around for me to cut it with.”

  “Excuses, excuses.” Lance said waving his hand away, Shiro snorted in return. A loud growl echoed thru the room and everyone turned to look at Keith who was red in the face ears folded back in embarrassment.

  “Time to get you something to eat.” Hunk said as he pulled Keith along with him to the kitchen.

*****

**Author's Note:**

> _*bows and runs away*_
> 
>  
> 
> Kudos and Comments are loved


End file.
